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The Great Manure Crisis of 1894

July 7, 2016

There is a panic for every generation. In the many centuries before cars would clog up the streets of New York and other cities, there were horses and horse carriages. Naturally, all of these horses had to “go” and therefore left small messy piles of manure.

However, because there were so many horses, these small piles added up to around 2.5million pounds of horse manure in New York alone. In the 1890s, it is assumed that there were around 100,000 horses in that rapidly growing city. The New York Times reportedly called out “The Great Manure Crisis of 1894”. People were actually worried that within 50 years time, the city would drown in horse manure. London had a similar problem with several thousand horse-drawn buses. In 1898, there was an international urban city planning conference. The problem was discussed, but no solution was found. Nevertheless, the first cars quickly arrived to save the World. Only 15 years later, the problem was no more.

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